Bowser on Top of Game for Quartz Hill

Freddie Edwards flied out to left field to begin Tuesday’s Golden League baseball game between visiting Antelope Valley and Quartz Hill highs.

Only 93 minutes later, Edwards, a senior center fielder for the Antelopes, flied out to center to end it.

In between, Quartz Hill’s Travis Bowser and Antelope Valley’s John Narhuminti, two lanky, high-kicking left-handers, made short work of batters struggling to make contact.

By the margin of a second-inning bloop single to center that drove in the game’s only run, Quartz Hill (7-1, 3-1 in league play) came out on top, 1-0. The Rebels remain a half-game behind first-place Saugus (3-0), a 5-3 winner over Palmdale.

Bowser (1-0) pitched a three-hitter and struck out eight. He threw only 94 pitches, many of them slow curves sandwiched between high fastballs. Narhuminti (3-1), who yielded four hits, threw only 71 pitches.

Talk about daylight-saving time.

“I’ve probably got time now to go over and watch Palmdale and Saugus,” Quartz Hill Coach Mike Nielson said. “When you have two pitchers throwing strikes and a lot of balls being put in play . . .”

Rubdowns come much sooner than sundown. And Bowser’s arm, despite the light workload, needed soothing afterward.

“My arm doesn’t feel any different now than it does after any other game,” said Bowser, a 6-foot-2 senior. “I was getting tired there at the end. I wasn’t getting any rest between innings. I sat down, and then I was right back in there.”

Antelope Valley (3-6-1, 2-2) put a runner aboard in every inning but never more than one. In the fourth, Jason Kresser singled and advanced to second with two out, but Bowser quickly snuffed the threat by striking out Marcus Armstrong. Two of the Antelopes’ three hits were infield singles to shortstop.

Narhuminti, a 6-1 senior, struck out five, walked one and did not give up an extra-base hit.

Quartz Hill manufactured its run after Mike Krass led off with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice. Mike Caudillo lofted a single to center and Krass beat Edwards’ throw to the plate by a comfortable margin.

“I don’t think (Bowser) is a better left-hander than ours,” Antelope Valley Coach Ed t’Sas said. “He did a good job today, but we couldn’t hit.”